Under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, Registration No. S35592 of 1999

AKHIL BHARTIYA POORVA SAINIK SEVA PARISHAD

History

The Ex-servicemen of India’s Defence Forces are always prepared to sacrifice everything of their’s being anxious for seeing INDIA to resume its past glory and the status of ‘Vishwa-Guru’. Such sacrificing sons of Mother India were responsible for freeing the country from the shackles of British colonial rule. To safeguard the hard-won freedom, our brave soldiers have kept alive the highest tradition of making the supreme sacrifice for our Motherland.

A thought came into the mind of some of the diehard nationalist thinkers who loved their country and society from their core of hearts that a very large number of soldiers are released from active since, every year, in thousands, when they are still young and embued with national spirit and endowed with the sterling qualities of loyalty, discipline, honesty, dedication and hard work especially so, as a team; why cannot energy of this vast human resource be effectively utilized for the Nation Building and upliftment of the Society, by bringing them together, under umbrella of an efficient organization, dedicated to this cause. After a lot of meaningful deliberations at various forums in the country, it was concluded that such an organization needs to be established in the larger national interest. Some group of people in Jammu (J&K), Kanpur & Mainpuri (UP) got working on this idea. The matter was also discussed at a number of meetings to evolve a strategy towards its materialization.

It was under the stewardship of Commander Bal Krishan Jaiswal (IN) who had retired from the Indian Navy that the process of creating such an organization, as per the prevailing laws of the land, got under way including framing of its constitution, inter-alia, incorporating the organizational structure at National, State and lower levels, as also, the composition, functions and responsibilities cum duties of various functionaries, comprising the Management Committees at various levels of the hierarchy, in the organization. First, such an organization was created in the state of Uttar Pradesh and was duly registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act XXI- 1860, on 26 July 1992.

Next, many important steps were also taken under the directions of Commander Jaiswal (IN), to expand the organization to other parts of the country. It was due to his utmost devotion, sacrifice and unrelented determined efforts that such an organization stared taking shape at the National level. First Inaugural session of this organization was held at SURAJMAL VIHAR, DELHI from 11 to 13 November 1995 in which 107 delegates from different parts (states) of the country participated. As per a resolution passed at this session, this pan India Organisation was to be called as “Akhil Bhartiya Poorva Sainik Seva Parishad, (ABPSSP)” and the organizations at state levels & below were to be simply known as “Poorva Sainik Seva Parishad”. The Akhil Bharitya Poorva Sainik Seva Parishad was duly registered under the aforesaid Indian Societies Act in 1999.

On completion of ten (10) years of the organization into being (in 1995), first ‘Maha Sammelan was convened, at KANPUR (UP) from 01 to 03 October 2005. The presence cum participation of General Shankar Roy Choudhary, (former COAS), Lieutenant General N S Malik (former Deputy Chief of Army Staff), Vice Admiral K K Nayyar (Retired) of Indian Navy and Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri (Retired), besides the gracious presence of His Excellency RAMA JOIS, Governor of Karnataka and Shri Ishwar Chandra Gupta, a former Member of Parliament, made the event, indeed historic.

In the aforesaid Maha Sammelan, besides taking several important decisions in the interest of Nation and Society, as also, the ex-servicemen, the long outstanding demand of ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION’, was given the support it deserved. This demand was ultimately accepted by the NDA Government in 2015 and implemented soon after, in November 2015.

In the following years, the organization continued to grow and formed its roots in almost all the important states of the country. The scope of activities of the organization also got widened and enlarged, encompassing many important facets of the ex-servicemen’s life, in post retirement period, as also, in the interest of Nation & Society – the important ones being - Vir Sainik Gram Gaurav Yojana, participation in the MOIRANG Festival organized annually by the State Government of Manipur & undertaking visits to important places on our Northern borders, eg. – Srinagar, Drass and Kargil, as also, Tawang, to commemorate the post independence operations, undertaken by the Indian Army and pay tributes to our gallant soldiers who made their supreme sacrifice for safe guarding the country’s territorial integrity. To harness the valuable resource of families of our ex-servicemen, SAINYA MATRI SHAKTI (SMS)- a Constituent (Prakalp) of the ABPSSP came into being for the welfare and upliftment of the women folk of the nation in 2006.

Second ‘Maha Sammelan’, ten years after the first one, was organised on a much larger scale, in 2015, at ANAND in Gujarat, from 02 to 04 October 2015. More than 1100 persons including some of family members of the ESM, participated in this grand event, Honourable Shri Manohar Parrikar, Raksha Mantri attended the function for one complete day so as to be able to meet the representatives/ functionaries of the Organisation, down to and at the level of States/ Prants etc and get to know their views and problems for taking appropriate remedial steps/ measures.

The gracious presence of His Excellency Shri Om Prakash Kohli, the Governor of Gujarat during this Sammelan in its Inaugral Session made it an important event in the history of ABPSSP. An important resolution adopted by the Sammelan at their ‘Maha Sammelan’ was to work earnestly towards the continued growth of the ABPSSP, to cover the remaining states in the country and to cross the membership figure of one lakh so as to enable it to be recognised as an ex-servicemen organisation at the National level by the Government of India (MoD) with a view to derive all the attendant benefits extended by the Government to ESM. This should indeed be our main OBJECTIVE for the next few years.